The Stake
by IncognitoFoxxo
Summary: The inseparable duo gets assigned to go on a stakeout, with so much time to kill and as mates, they have conversations and take actions they wouldn't typically take in their concealed, mysterious relationship that continued to beguile mammals who were inquisitive about their relationship. Rated M for the topics discussed.
1. Hour 1

_**Disclaimer: So there's probably gonna be 9-10 chapters in this (one for each hour) I'm gonna try and write this to a higher quality, this actually has a plan to it so it won't feel rushed and I'm gonna stick to the realism of characteristics of characters from the movie.**_

 _ **Oh yeah, this story's updates are going to be irregular but hopefully, one chapter will be posted every fortnight or every 3 weeks since as I'm writing other stories and each chapter's about 10,000 words. Also, each chapter's going to end with a flashback except for the last one.**_

 _ **(Yes I am aware rookie officers have to wait 18 months before being promoted and that there isn't a week break in between training, but this is fiction.)**_

 _ **So, yeah, I hope you enjoy :P**_

 _Hour 1_

Nick and Judy sat in their personal unmarked car in the shadows after the month Nick had been on the force. They were somewhat lucky to even be partners especially after the incident they had a couple a weeks ago regarding the display of affection in the precinct, unfortunately in front of the chief. It didn't take a genius to figure out they were dating, however what they did in their relationship still remained a mystery. They never appeared more than affectionate towards each other, and the facetious innuendos Nick joked with Judy about weren't taken seriously by either of them and regarding sexual matters, nothing really seemed to go down to when first meets the eye. But behind walls a lot went down, very sexual matters were displayed in Judy's cramped apartment, and the gazelles who dwelled next door were sick of hearing the walls bang and bump for hours upon end. They didn't even think that banging for that long was possible and when the rabbit and fox acted out role-play they had to endure it through the paper thin walls.

Even for foxes, Nick was extraordinarily sly and sneaky at keeping the information that they were mates retained. They'd only once let it slip and that was in front of the chief through a drunk mistake. Most of the officers, however, didn't believe Clawhauser who swore they were a couple, and that left a couple of officers excluding the flabby cheetah to believe this disregarded view.

They didn't even know how they'd got to the point where they were flirtatiously murmuring quotes like 'Your tax evasion days over…' and using handcuffs from work in their 'role play', all they knew was that they endeavoured to be in each other's company and with the stakeout they were assigned to, they had no choice but to abandon the sexual time they had with each other. Not like they cared much apart from the sex anyway as the apartment and its rickety bed was only something to groan at.

When they first dated, Judy was anxious that Nick would be too open about their relationship and spoil their career for them by his relentless flirting that he was set on doing whilst he was feeling in the mood and in private, but he was the complete opposite which even surprised Judy. That was until he was in bed, he was a completely different mammal, as was she. Both setting any sort of naivety aside. He treated her like she wasn't a bunny and displayed all his predatory signs to her, that even meaning his knot, he didn't care if he clenched her with his paws or bit her neck lightly or even pushing his tongue in places it shouldn't be. When they took a weekend trip to bunny burrows Judy told only her mum the truth about them and in return received a promise she wouldn't tell anyone through a very awkward conversation about protection, which led to both Judy and Nick blushing, palms to foreheads.

Nick liked to observe her out of the flimsy work uniform she wore, not like he was complaining in the first place, but it was nice to see her relaxed and a little less on edge constantly. After she'd stripped from her work clothes right in front of him, he only felt a stronger desire to convey his lust for her. Judy on the other hand yearned to see her fox dressed in smart clothes, as to why he tried to wear his uniform the correct way just for her every single day before he plucked up the courage to ask her out. They were both dressed in causal clothing though to cause the least amount of suspicion. Nick wore a pink Hawaiian shirt and a pair of baggy pants that were navy in colour, whilst Judy wore a pair of ripped denim short shorts and a t-shirt with a loose collar stretching past her shoulder, with only a vest top underneath to prevent things showing that weren't supposed to. Their relationship up to this point had been nonchalant, free of big arguments and fallouts, however they did nonetheless hustle each other. They loved each other that was for sure, but the secrecy was unbelievable, thanks to Nick's witty attitude that rubbed off onto Judy of course.

She cleared her throat aware they weren't being monitored by the dash cam the chief had put it in place on their cruiser just to be sure that there wasn't any fraternisation taking place, further more they hadn't got a radio on Nick's cheap sedan. The only method of communication was their own personal radio transmitters, which couldn't be accessed by the precinct anyway. They were untraceable… apart from their cells.

Nick lifted up the seat release to reorientate the seat into a more recumbent position until Judy held it up and pinged the seat forward, almost smashing Nick's head into the dashboard. "C'mon slick, we've got keep watch." Judy had only been on 1 stakeout prior to this one and it didn't exactly go swimmingly, but as a lieutenant, Nick was technically under her command.

He sighed and returned to his original posture. "Uh, 8 more hours of this."

"It's not that bad slick, besides we have each other right?" He turned and gaped his eyes at what he thought had sexual undertones until she noticed his gawp and quickly corrected herself. "Not like that you filthy fox!" He sighed with relief and pulled out his phone. When he pulled it out he immediately grasped the attention of Judy as she caught sight of the wallpaper he had set on his phone. "You still have that picture?"

He blushed at the sudden realisation she'd seen the photo. The picture he'd taken was from the first day he went to the academy with both their ebullient attitudes on full display as she wouldn't get to see him for the next 3 months until he had a week and then another sustained period of desperation for her started. In that week he had time to spend with her he confronted her about his true feelings towards her and what he wanted for them both. Unfortunately, that feeling of them being a couple didn't last long as he darted back to the academy a couple of days afterwards. "Oh yeah, I thought it was nice."

"Awww, Nick you really do have a heart!" He tutted at their banter they would have every so often, both obviously taking it lightly as the couple they were, joking about everything from a passer-by to a corpse they had to examine for work.

He sighed whilst pulling a straight face and gazing at that picture of him with his 'ZPD' t-shirt and her appearing underneath his shoulder. She rested her paw on his arm as she had done on the sky trams and reminding him of that moment, inducing him into a state where his tears were only being held back by his own dignity. He hadn't broken down in front of her yet and he felt as though he had a role not to, she'd always looked up to him for his hardiness and his robust persona, however, he looked up to her due to her optimism consistently beaming through everything in its way. That hardiness he thought, made her feel safe and that he would always be there for her even in hard times, but if he broke now, in front of her, that dignity and duty he fulfilled would be engulfed whole.

 _Don't do it you dumb fox! She's only turned your life around…_

At that thought, he exponentially felt himself trying to resist the tears from brimming his eyes but eventually, they came and she was there to comfort him, not the other way round that it frequently appeared.

She stroked his ears down to his neck and hushed him as he sniffed and hugged her tighter into his chest. She hugged him back with her dearest heart, despite the fact she didn't understand what he was weeping about or why he was so inclined to wrap her in his arms. In amongst the sniffs he every so often did, he managed to utter some words that helped Judy comprehend why he was in such a state, but still why he'd never been in such a venerable position before. "I love you, Judy. So much."

Judy had been in this predicament before, having to comfort someone in tears and in a burrow always full of breakups and stress, she soon came around to the predictable behaviour of every new bunny in the burrow, especially after two decades of living there. She smiled as she guided his head to face her with her paw. "Tell me what's up." She placed her paw on his arm again, this time he accepted and didn't shrug her off in a contemptuous manner.

He still didn't answer in the fits of sniffing he continued to endure, endeavouring not to tremble every time he took a breath. She buried her head into his chest as he cuddled her like a teddy bear in his arms.

After Nick had calmed himself down and composed himself enough to be articulate, he finally managed to express his thoughts to her. He sniggered before scoffing, almost disgusted with his own actions before she raised her finger. "Nick I'm a bit stuck."

He released his grip on her unaware of how hard he was holding onto her, resentful to let her go. The academy was a gym for Nick and every day when Judy would drag him out for a jog he maintained the strength he'd piled up at the academy. He managed to wipe away the tears from his ears and the glistening stripes that streaked his face were pried from his fur. "I'm sorry carrots."

She was completely staggered at how he could be blaming himself for what he just did if she knew Nick the way she did, he was never broken by anything and that flow of tears just helped to reassure he wasn't an insensitive mammal who only cares about themselves. It made him even feel like a mammal, not just a stuck up con who doesn't even buy his food. "It's not your fault slick, besides it doesn't hurt to cry every now and then."

He continued to wipe the remnants of his tears away from his eyes whilst sniffing but nevertheless replied to her intendedly comforting remark. "It's embarrassing carrots, I mean what if I did that in the precinct or where Bogo could have seen it."

"If you did then I would pound anyone who tried to mock you."

He sat up in shock with his ears erect at the sound of a threat from such a small bunny to wolves and rhinos. "I can assure there is no need for that, anyway I'm worse when I'm drunk so just keep me away from them when I'm drunk because according to Finnick I'm 'emotionally unstable'."

"I know Nick."

"What? How?"

"In the morning when I walked in the toilets, you were sat on the floor drinking beer nude." She reminisced the memory as he groaned also remembering it vividly, not too happy to do so though.

"Just to clarify I'm unaware of what I do or say drunk."

"Do you at least remember what happened at the office Christmas party?" He placed his paw on his forehead whilst shaking it ever so slightly and predicted what she was going to say would be negative.

"Nope, like I said-"

"Clawhauser saw us, Nick, that's why everyone has been on our case for the past few days."

"Oh wow, he saw us drunk together that must mean that we're a couple!"

"No, hang on…" she rapidly scrolled through her phone in an attempt to find the picture that now was the vital evidence to support the fact that they're partners (in more ways than one)... Judy assumed Nick knew and thought he wouldn't want to talk about it, so didn't say anything to him. Upon sight of the wicked picture she wished never existed, she pushed it in his face. "Look!"

The ears that stood elevated on the back of his head sagged down in instant shock. He felt like throwing the phone out the window and onto the blissful snow that coated the pavement in an attempt to rid himself of the emanates same thing he was induced into by the bunny sitting beside him. "Oh god…" he was speechless at the picture Clawhauser had taken of them whilst they were both drunk off their heads and even though it wasn't the best of quality, his bright fur clearly symbolised him kneeling over Judy and keeping her restrained as they gazed into each other's eyes.

In actual fact, they'd decided to get 'down to business', as Judy called it, in the evidence room. This was of course out of eyeshot or even earshot for that matter fact, due to some coital acts that happened in the room.

Unfortunately halfway through their 'getting down to business' the door clicked open. The chief strode in saw Nick's tail peering out behind some boxes and the very strong smell of musk told him exactly what was going on. Nick and Judy wondered why he was so resentful let them on the stakeout and now they'd never know. The chief tried to put that behind him and just continue with the job as normal but all he could he think of was his best cop doing it with the fox on their stakeout.

But in reality it was the farthest thing from that, they were having a laugh, chatting about embarrassing things in an attempt to pass the hours that crawled by, and as Nick wanted to just pick Judy up and put her in his lap, he knew she would scarper and get back to the job as that was her, _my bunny_ , he thought.

"Where did you go after the party, all I remember doing is picking a half eaten burrito of the floor and throwing it at an ATM."

"Well I didn't go home, I think I fell asleep and I woke up to a woman flicking a nickel in front of me." Judy laughed and glanced from his head to toe.

"I don't blame her." She chuckled whilst he found it vexing, he, in turn, flailed his arms over the gear-stick at her.

She pulled out a couple of handcuffs, Nick instantly reminisced some moments of their 'role play' from them, so did Judy. However she was more conservative of her emotions and feelings towards that pair of metal rings. "I wouldn't slick." He huffed and crossed his arms in defeat until she sensed the tension that dwelled in the small sedan Nick owned. "Besides I knew you were completely wasted that night and what we did as one; my hips were killing and two; you strolled in with a burning headache and flopped on the floor in bullpen. But mainly because you weren't there when I woke up." He felt touched as she had become a real detective, her dream, over the past months: learning the city's streets, knowing the typical locations of deals, and listening to Nick's advice. He felt proud at what she'd become; an inspiration to so many mammals, fuelling them to peruse their aspirations.

As Nick shook his head to snap him out the daze he dwelled in, he smiled at her and shook her paw off his shoulder that she'd placed in curiosity and perturbation at his silence that persisted, engrossed in his own thoughts. "I bet you've done something worse, with all that strong country ale." She rolled her eyes as his always stereotypical outlook on how she lived her life as a child and teenager, and in fact, he wasn't too far off the reality, of course, the major difference between his imagination and reality was that there was electricity. When he visited, even though that opinion was corrected some still remained engraved into his mind such as the alcohol.

"We don't have any different drinks to what you have." He gave her a sarcastic nod as she sighed and proceeded to answer his original question in an attempt to make conversation. "Well there was this one time…" gaining his interest, he ceased to gaze at the flocking flakes migrating to the already encrusted asphalt. "…I got drunk with my sisters the day before I went to Zootopia. It was only supposed to be a leaving party but the next morning I ended up with my ears in the toilet." He tried to hold back the outright laughter by sniggering until he cracked into a fit of howling laughter that Judy had come to know so well due to his unique and rather hug pitch laugh but maybe that was because she'd rarely come across another fox who wasn't a chain-smoker. She laughed reminiscing the memory excluding the fact that Gideon had taken a picture of her in the appalling state she was in: toilet roll on her foot, drool down the side of her face and the absence of pants. It very much destroyed her reputation but she didn't care as she was leaving in a couple of hours anyway, to meet another fox. "Anyway, you don't have any right to laugh, you probably had it worse as a con mammal."

He didn't like the fact that the topic had been flipped round to his past and his far from sober states that he occasionally delved into. "Well I usually am fine but this one time with Finnic…" she could already tell it was going to be bad as the small but snappy fennec was involved. "My worst ever time I got drunk was in high school. This kid brought in some vodka, and I drunk at least two-thirds of it." She raised her eyebrows high enough for them to fly off her head until he reassured her he wasn't lying and that this actually happened. "Then I got rushed off to the hospital and I had to get my stomach pumped, I have to say, I looked real badass when I came out."

Just from that small snippet of his childhood she automatically predicted what his youth could have been like without even having a single clue what he was like academically. "So you were a rebel?" She contrasted her stress-free country life with his drunk urban streets and eventually found nothing in common except the fact they were both mammals.

"What makes you think that?"

"Gee, I don't know! Maybe getting drunk at 14 might hit the list."

He understood where she was coming from, he hadn't told her anything about his teenage years in the streets or his academic life. "How do you think I got accepted into this job? Let alone this precinct to be partners with this bunny." Due to his increased discourteous and derogatory manner towards the buffalo that governed him. He had to put in extra effort in the interview as he had to try and clear the pique off the stern sharp buffalo's face, then he had to sort out his physical state, then his mental knowledge of the force, all coming down to the fact that he was valedictorian. That was the happiest moment of his life, he was finally gonna do something right with his life rather than pull cons 24/7 and intensely infuriate rookie cops that were often Hicks in his spare time.

She felt as though she'd been caught in a catch 22, everything she said would have a negative impact, she knew herself how hard the interview was with Bogo, and thinking of how it would go if he despises your guts gave her chills. "Touché."

He couldn't help but feel the need to boast about his grades in school, and when he did he shocked her; big time. "I got As in my exams."

"Yeah right!" Nick took a bit of offence to her demeaning swift remark but shrugged it off as he elaborated on his reasons.

"Well, I'll have you know Miss Hopps; I got grade As because I wanted to help my family when I was young, I finished school and I soon found that just because I'm a fox I can't work in places with valuable items because foxes are prone to steal things. How discriminative is that?!" Judy pitied Nick, he had it hard, really hard just because he was a fox. Judy wanted to just wrap him in her arms but he wasn't even done. "So because my parents are obviously foxes, they couldn't get a great job either so just to rear me, they had to work overtime. That left me with tons of free time and whenever I got home from school I would go out with big ears."

Judy had caught on to all of Nick's nicknames and could at least match them with a face, she even used them herself sometimes which really did show that Nick was rubbing off on her. "Awww!" He was annoyed at her sympathetic remark but he just let her do it, because that's what 'good' foxes do, according to his mum.

He hastily changed the topic to one that could burn his ears with a potent inferno. "Do you think anyone at work would do something as bad as what we've done?"

"Well everyone's got their tale. Some weirder than others but everyone's done something they regret." He nodded in agreement before breaking the silence that Judy endeavoured to have for the what seemed like millionth time.

"Wolford's a massive lightweight though, at the party he apparently jumped in a lake because someone told him to."

"I don't know which is worse: Ben's drunk dancing or Fred's drunk speech." The memories of Clawhauser's dancing caused him to suffer from similar symptoms to PTSD, it was horrid and embarrassing. Going to a bar with him would usually result in the flabby cheetah performing some disgraceful dance moves. "I thought your dance moves were bad, but jeez."

"Hey carrots, at least I'm not as bad as the chief's."

She held her paw to her mouth as she performed the biggest gasp Nick had ever seen. "YES! The chief! And them horns…" They both started coughing in an intense burst of euphoria causing Nick to start crying he was laughing so much and Judy barely controlling her bladder after being sat in the car for what seemed like hours without a bathroom break.

Nick slammed his fist against the centre of the steering wheel, igniting the horn into a drone of the deafening sound. Judy quickly reclaimed her senses and pushed the seemingly dying fox off the horn to prevent their cover being blown. Nick started to ease his laughter and Judy needed him to stop laughing before someone noticed the hysterical fox's laugh from within. And what better way to do that than kiss him to soundlessness, after all, they were a couple.

He was speechless at her new found secret weapon; the power of passion. Judy cleared her thirst trying to rid them of the sombre atmosphere. "So, about the chief huh…"

Nick hasn't really had a passionate kiss with Judy before and even though she only used it as an excuse to shut him up, he felt like she really meant it, not just the mindless lip smashing to satisfy their sexual needs. He was in a daze, lavishing in that small amount of affection he received. She waved her paw in his face until he mindlessly grabbed her and pushed his lips into hers.

They relived the moment, only elongated and more meaningful, not just to silence him. They both continued to feel around in each other's mouths and even though Judy couldn't read Nick's thoughts, she could read his actions. She assumed he wanted to drag her to bed or do something carnal right there, but much to her dismay he didn't even grab her in explicit places he just treasured the moment.

Eventually pulling away for a breath, he silenced her. "What was that, carrots?" Attempting not to let him see that he was getting to her she prevailed past emotion and pushed into a frenzy of words.

Unfortunately, a stutter implanted in her speech was present at the time she tried to speak nonchalantly, therefore denouncing any type of serious or casual appearance she tried to pull on Nick. "W-what do y-you think about the c-chief's addiction to G-Gazelle?" A lifetime later after she'd spluttered out the sentence whilst drowning in waves of blush.

As much as Nick wanted to point out her blush to make it deeper and more concentrated, he restrained himself and proceeded with an answer to her rather random question. "I think it's cute…" she was expecting a tease at any moment: _3, 2, 1-_ "…and so are you." She smiled at him and his pathetic excuse of flirting.

She had an idea that would up the ante and could go one of two, very different, ways. She leant across and grasped his tie pulling him closer to her. "Well, I wouldn't be so sure if I were you." She released her grasp on his tie as he leant back into his seat, unsure how to interpret what she just said. However, he did know that he felt some heat from his loins and took everything he had to resist pulling something seductive on her right then.

Once Judy had stopped laughing at Nick fidgeting in discomfort from the excessive warmth from his loins, she sparked up a conversation. "Do you think Gazelle is sort of like us with the tigers?" Nick gaped his jaw nearly hitting the floor at how such an indecent question came from such a usually innocent bunny.

"What do you mean by that?" He just wanted to clarify what she meant by the unprecedented comment.

"Well, I mean like- you know, things." She started to blush for what seemed like the hundredth time that night.

Nick knew exactly what she was talking and decided to be the jerk he was and play on it. "So, by things you mean..."

After having that war for five straight minutes where it just looped around Judy started to wish she had said nothing in the first place as Nick started to guess was she was on about even though he knew what she was on about as she had spelled it out as much as she could, her country attitude towards sex was present and Nick tried to bring her out of her shell about it. "You mean sex, don't you?" She shook her head in a rather unsure manner, more unsure about saying no than all the other purposefully wrong guesses he made. "It is isn't it, you now you don't have to be all secret about sex with me, I mean how can you be when we've done it ourselves?"

Judy didn't appreciate Nick trying to confront her about her own reluctant point of view on the saw subject in her mind. She was looking for any way to get out of what he was saying and glancing over the dashboard she spotted a hooded figure walking down the street. "Mammal at six o'clock." Nick still continued to drone on about how country bunnies don't know what life was like in the city and that it wasn't such a saw topic and Judy picked up a pair of binoculars. Unfortunately, it was too dark for Judy to see anything so instead slapped Nick back into a work frame of mind which seemed to do its job perfectly. "I can't believe you! Look!" She was livid with him for his insufferable ignorance that Judy proclaimed no other mammal would be able to put up with, so he was lucky to have her. Nick rolled his eyes as Judy almost winded him by pushing the binoculars into his chest for him to use.

He put them up to his face scanning the area with his excelled vision that seemed to do its job of detecting an old woman holding a bag of shopping. Nick reported what he saw and tossed them to Judy before sighing as he reclined in his chair, something Judy had prevented him from doing at the start of their stakeout but 30 minutes in and still without any action, she began to realise the dullness of their job.

Judy looked up at Nick in hopes that the plan she'd devised had worked and sure enough it did. She burst out laughing causing Nick feel extraordinarily confused by her sudden uproar of laughter. "What carrots?"

"Oh, nothing."

"No there has to be something otherwise you wouldn't be laughing."

"No seriously Nick, it's nothing."

Nick was starting to get peeved by her adamant attitude to not telling him what she was laughing at. "You can tell me." She started to calm down and pointed to her eyes and when Nick pulled the sun visor down and flicked open the mirror he sighed. "Really?" He rolled his eyes and wiped his paws around his eyes in an attempt to get the black rings off. "How did you even do that?"

Judy flashed stick of mascara in hi face before he groaned. "I remember you saying that make-up really can do wonderful things." She sniggered as he regretted saying that as now she had his word against himself and she didn't need the pen to prove that. "Here." She passed him a bottle of water and he took it with a smile drawn across his face thankful that his mate was actually considerate and he was kind of thankful for her sake as well, as he had already thought of a plan to torture her with his own black-ringed eyes.

The car was silent for a little while after that, they were bored and there was nothing to do except glare at the snow as it fell. "What do you think the chief would have said if he saw us in the evidence room at the office Christmas party?"

"Oh he definitely saw us, didn't you see him the day after, he looked like he saw a ghost. But instead of the ghost us two having a good time, you know with us having se-"

"Yeah, I get it!" She was inclined on preventing him from getting back on the topic she'd just about managed to get him off of. "We need to apologise to the chief if he saw us, it's the only way he'll look at us the same way he used to."

Nick looked like _he_ had seen a ghost when she suggested the thought of apologising to the Buffalo who had seen the unthinkable. "Why don't we just forget about it then he will, how does that sound?" He started to regret telling her the truth about that night when the thought of apologising to the oversized mammal dawned on him.

"No, we need to tell him or he'll just avoid us."

Nick had had enough of suppressing his sarcasm and became the less compassionate and considerate Nick that Judy had first met. "What are we gonna tell him? Oh sorry we had a quick fuck in the evidence room, sir, didn't intend for that to happen!" Nick was piqued by the fact she was following her trait of honesty to the point of telling their boss they were pleasuring each other in the work place. Nick hated the idea, for two reasons: One, Bogo would flip out and probably separate them as being partners and two, he was fine as he was, he didn't need consolidation for what he saw. Then again how were they supposed to know for sure, they just be creating problems for themselves if they approached the chief about it or the sergeant, or anyone for that fact.

"Stop it with the language, what is wrong with you today?"

"Me?! You're the one set on telling our boss that we had drunk sex in the evidence room."

"Hang on, you said the evidence room."

"Yeah..."

"That room has cameras on 24/7, and they review the footage for the past week today. Oh god." Nick looked like he'd just seen a ghost as he solemnly stared into the snow that littered the streets, what did they expect? It was new years eve. However, both of the inquisitive officers thought of different things as the snow flocked to the sidewalk and onto the road, Judy more inclined of knowing if there was a dead body beneath the snow, to Nick, who reminisced memories with his family. Even though they held contrasting frames of thought, they shared a love for one another, extremely confidentially.

"So you're telling me that my c-" Nick abruptly stopped his sentence to prevent himself from cursing and trying to think of an alternative, he set on point down to the bulge in between his legs which just annoyed Judy even more than the strong language did. "… _this_ will be caught on camera?"

Judy nodded and placed her fingers on either side of her nose whilst shaking her head in disbelief of what she'd done. That didn't just mean the lascivious act in the precinct, it defined as the tod who hustled her evolving into a mammal following her into the force (which he was formerly against) and becoming more than just a fox, he became her partner in more ways than one… Also, the fact how no one knew except them just questioned why they were in a relationship in the first place. Nick was questioning all the same topics in his head as well. "How long have we got to go?"

"I don't know fluff, probably between 7 and 8 hours."

"Oh, right."

Silence. It was completely silent, the only noise being the motor of the car that Nick ran to keep the heater on to prevent them dying from the sub-zero temperatures the surrounded the car. That was also a negative to Nick using his personal car for the winter stakeout, it would cost him hundreds of dollars in petrol. If he was willing to pay that price to keep his bunny warm, then so be it. Nick would be fine, he had his tail which entire point was to keep him warm. He wanted to wrap his tail around Judy to maintain her warmth however, he wouldn't be able to control himself around her, whether the ending was due to be him having an accident in his pants or her pushed against the window of the car with Nick's tongue being the main focus.

To shut out them salacious thoughts for what seemed like the millionth time that night, he started yet another conversation this time to be one that was impulsed by his mindset at that time. "So, had you had sex before you met me?" He knew the answer to the question was no but, he was willing to see whether she would act like she had or whether she would tell him the truth.

Judy frowned, and when she was about to scold him she just remembered what he mentioned about the morals in Zootopia contrasting to her home beliefs so she just answered affirmatively surprising Nick who thought she was going to have another rant towards him about how he isn't aware of other peoples' privacy but, to that he just replied that they should trust each other as they're mates and nothing should stand in between them which got Judy every single time. "Nick, I'm 25, of course, I have."

"Really? Because when we first did it, a little something was still there..."

By this point in the conversation Judy's blush had elevated up to her ears, she was confused by what he meant by 'a little something' however when Nick of all people censored a word it was obviously something, not even he was comfortable talking about. "Why what was still there?"

Nick felt like laughing at her naivety on the topic at hand but it wasn't too much brought up in conversations whilst in the burrows, disregarding the matter instantly. "When a female does it for the first time, they have 'a little something' still there and therefore when the male does 'it' with her, it breaks and it's not there any more. And it also hurts you… a lot." Nick had censored the terms just for Judy as she would have more than likely slapped him if he used the real words but, she didn't care any more, she wasn't in the burrows any more and she wasn't with country bunnies any more. She was in Zootopia; as a police officer; with her fox, that's all that mattered to her at the minute: the inseparable combination that caused a smile to dawn across her face every time she awoke. She still felt dumb for not knowing something that had even happened to her in the past. "I'm guessing you didn't learn about from school, so how the hell were you supposed to know that? It's fine to not know some things you know." At least he knew what she was feeling but when did he not know what she thinking, he was the closest thing to being telepathic. It was a skill he'd developed over the years, from gambling and many other situations where it was a benefit to know what someone was thinking. Yet Judy was still trying to get her head around it.

"At least I know why it hurt the first time now, huh." Judy sniggered at her own remark before quickly turning it over to Nick who smiled at his bunny taking it lightly. Just because she was a bunny, seemingly innocent and harmless (Nick knew these were NOT true in any way), it didn't mean she couldn't handle things that would scar most bears and big cats. "So, when was your first time?"

Nick tried to pinpoint the exact situation he was in when he first did it and his answer was a literal hyperbole of what Judy was expecting. "Probably when I was 13 and we had a frat party, apparently I was one of the only people to actually come out successful from the party in the morning." Nick felt as though he had to include that bit at the end just to boast and display his achievement. Judy sighed as that was just her tod, 13 and already rolling around in bed.

"Didn't your parents find out?"

Nick almost cried just from them five words, it was one hell of a story that he wasn't willing to share with anyone else except Judy. And it was one long story, but they had the time to discuss it, with Nick explaining exactly what happened in full detail.

By the time Nick was 14, he'd already slept with another dozen vixens, he didn't know how he managed to pull it off, but somehow he did. One summer night when he presumed his parents would be out for the night he brought a home and to his room, where they took their clothes off in a frenzy and immediately started to have sex, unfortunately for Nick, his prediction about his parents being out for the night was wrong and they got the shock of their life when they stepped through the front door, screaming, grunts and creaks were the only sound they heard from upstairs, so Nick's parents, being parents, darted upstairs to see Nick in the middle of his knot thrusting the life out of the vixen beneath him, he was caught red handed. That one second turned what they were doing from intense pleasure to the worst nightmare for both Nick and the vixen, Nick for obvious reasons but the vixen for the fact she had to sit there with a knot inside her for another 20 minutes. Nick had got caught sending nudes before but never got caught having sex before so this was far off the charts for doing something sexual. Nick just chuckled to himself before awkwardly uttering the word sorry to the vixen.

After she'd left and Nick had disposed of the condom he used along with wiping some off his fur and some off the bed he started to walk down the stairs, he was a horny 14-year-old, he got what most didn't, but it didn't exclude him from the scolds his parents would set upon him and he was gonna get the worst in his life. He walked slowly down the stairs with his head locked to the ground, he knew there was no excuse for what he had done, but he was more kicking himself for what he had done, what was he thinking? Brining a vixen home for a one night stand at the age of 14 was not the best of ideas but once he'd experienced it once he felt the urge to do it again whatever the consequences, it was turning into an addictive drug and he knew that, yet he still couldn't say no to anyone who asked him for 'a quicky out back' or some 'happy time'. His money sense was the only sense that prevailed over his urges, so he just let people come to him or use a frat party to his advantage.

His dad was seriously concerned about him, but he displayed it through anger and pique, rather than his mother who sat trying to get over what she just saw her son do. "What do you think you're doing? Rolling around up there whilst we were out! I thought you were better than this Nick! You're lucky our neighbours were out, the noise you two were making could have been heard from the street! Have you slept with anyone else? Tell me, _now_." His dad's glare was enough to pierce through his skull and delve deep into his mind and like any child, he lied, why would he tell the truth? He would just get scolded more. "Did you use protection, because I swear if I'm not even 35 and I have a grand-"

"Yes dad, I did."

Nick felt as though he was being interrogated, then all the attention was drawn towards the vixen who left mere minute ago. "Who is she then? Your girlfriend? A slag? A prostitute?"

Nick was in a catch 22 as whatever he said would put him in a position that he couldn't articulately respond to. He went with the option that would most likely get him the lightest scold there was to offer. "She's my girlfriend." Nick's dad didn't look convinced in the slightest by his son's mumbled answer.

"You're not seeing her again."

"But that's unfai-"

"Life's unfair, you have to wait like everyone else! You can't go storming off fucking whoever you want! It's illegal! Imagine if you got taken by social services and we never saw again?! What would you do then, come crying to us, or go to a nightclub and bag a woman for the night? Answer it!" His tone was now starting to transform into one of a more threatening manner and Nick's sudden introduction of answering back was only a catalyst to raising his ire.

"I don't wanna wait anymore! I want to be able to be with who I want to be with, I love her and I want to be with her, I could get married or have kits with her i-"

"Don't you dare answer back to me. _Boy."_

Nick took one big pluck of courage and got right up in his own father's face and said: "Make me."

His dad looked as though he was a bomb ready to blow and before he did something he would regret Nick's mum told him to go outside and cool down. Nick was ready for round 2 with his mum until she calmly and collectedly asked him to sit beside her.

"I know you want to do it this early and all you friends are probably doing it right now, but you know I did find another condom in the trash a couple of weeks ago and I just thought a kid might have thrown it in there, but I just want to know if you've done it more than once. Have you?"

Nick sat, unsure whether to tell the truth to his mum or whether to lie like he did to his dad but knowing his dad if he found what his mum was talking about he'd probably find out who's DNA it was, of course the only result it could have been was the conclusion that it belonged to Nick. His mother seemed more gentle towards him at the situation which just encouraged Nick to tell the truth, by this point though, he'd already lived through life nonchalantly blurting out lies to people just to get his own way. As he grew up he started to realise that the world didn't revolve around him and he became more acceptant of other people's opinions, still using the trait of being able to lie about anything so casually, for example, he could have easily kept quiet about stealing a dozen grand from a charity box, not like he would, but that was how capable he was. That's why he hardly ever got charged with anything as he managed to make his side of the story so believable that the judge couldn't say no. However, that moment with his mum on the couch was the time he decided to stop being know as a compulsive liar and actually tell the truth for once in his life. Mainly because he'd feared that he may follow the same ideologies portrayed in 'the boy who cried wolf' (That book was obviously wrote before predators and prey lived in 'harmony' as Judy believed Zootopia was like as a child, but by now she knew that was completely false).

"I have, a few times before this." Nick's mum knew he had by the look of regret on his face after she brought up the topic at hand. "She wasn't my girlfriend either." His mum shook her head as she took his paw in hers.

"This'll be our little secret, how about that? You know what dad will do if he finds out so promise me you won't do this again until you're old enough, promise me that." Nick loved his mum for the fact she was understanding of his situation rather than his dad who stormed out for a fag in an attempt to calm himself down.

"I promise." Nick's mum knew exactly how Nick felt as she was in the same situation when she was young and she knew how it felt to have your parents shouting at you for that reason, however, her parents caught her when she was 15 rather than 14 let alone the 13 Nick had explained to her.

She glanced out the front window at her husband before urging Nick to say something to him. Nick reluctantly got up after he'd hugged his mum and strode to the door, unsure whether to speak to his dad or not. Plucking up the courage to go outside and confront his dad about the situation he let the door close behind him as he leant against the house next to his dad with hi paw in his hoodie pocket. "I'm sorry dad, I didn't-"

"Why." It wasn't a question it was a statement that Nick's dad didn't expect an answer to so, he finished it himself. "You're just gonna throw your life away like that, get known as the guy who fucks anyone. I know that wasn't your girlfriend, just don't do it again before it's too late, I mean look at me, where I am. I'm a shit parent, with a shit house, in a shit job and I let my son get into the same place I was in when I was his age. I guess she's already told that's how I and your mum met, the same way you and your 'girlfriend' met. Underage sex. Just wait son, just wait to drink, just wait to smoke, just wait for me and your mum, we love you, just know that I will always be here for you." That's where Nick's memory went blank, that's all he could remember from that conversation.

But of course it doesn't stop there, there was more to this tale than that. Nick had bagged an actual girlfriend a couple of months later and when they were both hanging out in Nick's room alone without Nick's parents home, after a lot of persuasion that no ordinary mammal would be able to pull off, they felt they could trust him and left to go for a romantic night out for the first time in years. By this time Nick was 15 as his birthday had recently passed, just reminding him he had to wait another year to do what he wanted to physically show she was his girlfriend. Unfortunately both of them had made the critical mistake of upping the ante, that led to Nick's girlfriend being in the same position the vixen that Nick's parents found him in a couple of months prior to that moment. But like everything in the poor tod's life, it soon came to an abrupt end. There was a very deafening knock on the door and with his knot still very much present he had to ignore it, then for the fist time in years he rolled his eyes back and let his tongue roll and then something both of them didn't expect would happen, happened. Apparently someone had called the cops, concerned that a rape was taking place next door due to the carnal sounds from the semi-detached house Nick dwelled in. Obviously unaware it was the cops, Nick just continued, that was until the familiar sound of the police force's name was shouted through the walls.

"ZPD, open up!" Nick almost crapped himself at the realisation police were waiting outside his house.

"Just give me a couple of minutes!" Nick felt compelled to say something as if he didn't say anything they would probably barge down the door without notice and be the third person to catch him having sex, including the time Finnick barged in on him at a party, but that was a story for a different day.

After running them both under cold water by the hips, Nick chucked on some clothes and answered the door with confidence which contradicted his face after the police confronted him about the noises and, when he answered to his age, it was soon used against him, he couldn't walk straight neither could his girlfriend, both being drunk and underage they got taken down to the station for their parents to pick them up.

Nick's girlfriend's parents were livid whilst Nick's parents were just silent. He and his mum were speechless, he didn't know whether it was down to the fact he'd sworn not to do it until he was of age, or whether it was because their parents now knew, or whether it was because he didn't listen to either of them.

He could see they were both piqued, there was no doubt in that, but they were portraying it in an abnormal way. The drive home was just Nick sat head down in the back seat, then his mum spoke up. "I thought we promised you wouldn't do this anymore, but like everyone, every time I get lied to."

Nick's dad caught on which wasn't great for both his mum or Nick. They all pulled up on their drive. "What do you mean anymore? And what promise?"

"It's nothing dad."

"You don't have a say in this after the shit you pulled."

"It's nothing." He was now at a lost at who he could trust, he did it before and his own wife kept that a secret from him, he thought that was out of order, they were supposed to be a team of parents raising their child to do the right thing. Nick's dad was tired of dancing around his son, forgiving him for his mistakes, shouting at him if he did them again, grounding him in any instance so, his dad decided that this time, he wasn't going to do that. He was going to teach him the same way his parents taught him.

He hit Nick in the gut.

Nick never got hit, mainly because his mum wouldn't let him get hit, Nick was precious to her after her infertility and sworn to not let a single finger be laid upon him. Of course, that was completely irrelevant by Buck irreverent towards people who threatened him. Whether that be a simple curse in a street or a death threat. Anyhow, Nick had never had it done to him, he was a happy little cub and the transition to adolescence was just too much for his dad to handle. So he hit him. Really hard. In the gut. Nick was now livid towards his dad and winded worse than he'd ever been. "At least you were right about one thing…" His dad stopped and loosened the stern face that drew over him almost snapping him out of the violent trance he was currently stated in before Nick finished his sentence. "You are a shit parent." Nick's dad without hesitation, punched him again with the same brute force in the head, knocking him unconscious for a few seconds. Meanwhile his mum was screaming at him in the background, one of both angst and anger. A feeling that was smeared all over the walls of the house.

"This is all your fault, if you hadn't have been so soft on him from the start we wouldn't be in this mess! At least now he'll learn."

"How could you say that!? You're the one who knocked him unconscious you psycho!" At that point, Nick started to regain his consciousness and when he did all that he could hear were the words that would lead to his dad having a scar across his face for the rest of his life.

"I'm the psycho? I'm the one who puts food on the table for the sack of shit son you raised to eat."

Nick's mum scratched him from the top of his cheek, down across his lip, he was bleeding whilst Nick was bruising. She grabbed him by the collar and glared deep into his eyes with here's that we're filled with fire. "If you ever, EVER, call Nick a sack of shit again, you will get worse than this and if you are blaming me for our son feeling as though he can't trust you with a secret then why don't you hit me, because it's all my fault!" She was being extremely aggressive with a sarcastic undertone that just somewhat managed to ease his dad's antisocial behaviour, but that soon vanished as he now started to destroy almost everything they owned together, that meaning from smashing the wedding pictures to tearing up his mum's wedding dress. He eventually went downstairs and Nick's mum after a gruesome battle on the floor in the living room managed to push him out the front door, her fur coated in blood, both his and her own. "Don't come back you disrespectful, abusive, pathetic excuse of a mammal." She spat on him and slammed the door before she realised one, she'd have another car to pay tax for and two, she still had her wedding ring on. Through the front window, she chucked his car keys and wedding ring at him before exclaiming "WE'RE DONE."

"..and that's the story of how my parents got divorced because I was so impulsive when it came to sex." Judy was surprised at the amount of information he'd told about his past life, even if it was just one thing, he never spoke about it, he preferred to live in the present and when he spoke about his experiences, it was interesting, it drove Judy's curiosity over the edge and this time in Nick's car was the way to take advantage of it. There wasn't much going on in the present, so why both think about the past, as you can only make the future from you past events and experience.

There were still thousands of things he hadn't told her, simply because he didn't have time and yet here they were in the land of opportunity, and this was his opportunity. However, he was still resentful as to actually telling his past to anyone. Either because it was too dark, too long, too insignificant or just plain boring.

Judy wanted to hear more. Life in the city sounded so much more fun than life back at home, it mostly consisted of running and riding around in the fields and around the village, but since technology boosted in popularity and made in way into mass culture, less and less citizens of the burrows were seen playing out yet, more and more were found inside on their phones or whatever electronic device they would hold in their paws. Before she asked if she had any more tales to share she needed to get a thought off her mind. "So did your dad ever try to contact you after that?"

"Nope, not one incy wincy little bit of effort was put into finding me, I could easily track him down as I have some friends in the hacking business, but I want him to come to me." He sighed before leaning forward and asking himself a question. "Doesn't he want to know what I have grown up to become? A cop with a sustainable relationship not purely based on sex. I'm 32 and he's only 50. There's no reason why he shouldn't have come to visit me now unless he's scared of my mom." He should be able to find me in the phone book." The motor to Nick's curiosity sparked into action as he questioned questions.

 _Jeez, I really am a cop, questioning questions, Judy really_ has _changed me._

Nick snapped himself out of it and discarded all memories that he had with his dad as a kit, before the incident. It felt good to actually speak to someone about it and when they're so understanding, it improves the situation by tonnes. He couldn't speak to his mum about it as it was a saw subject and could not be touched with a hundred foot barge pole let alone a ten foot one. He still regretted bringing up the subject as now he reminisced the memories he had when he was young with his father. "You know, I shouldn't have said anything, I don't care whether he finds me or not."

"You can't just shrug it off like that Nick, this is huge, this is your dad. Don't you care about that?" He shook his head.

"He had it coming anyway, he wasn't all too nice in the months leading up to it in the first place, so can we just drop it now. Please?"

"But Ni-"

"Drop it."

"N-"

"I said drop it god damn it leave me alone, I'm fine." Nick turned to face out the window, looking up at the stars past the flocking flakes as Judy built the courage to use something against Nick that he would really not like, but at least it would snap him out of it and let her speak.

"I bet you're acting like your father right now."

Nick gaped his eyes wide open, ears erect, facing straight at Judy with a horrified look of scorn drawn right across her face from one side to the other. Horrified that she would as cruel enough to use that against him, but it did have the desired effect of snapping him out the sulking mood he was in prior to the aggravated one he presently dwelled in.

All of which happened seconds before the clock switched from 8:59 to 9:00. Judy was concerned for him, something Nick didn't usually receive from many people, but with a mate, that was her responsibility: to fuss over him and worry for him as Nick did over her. Just resentful to confront her with his fears as he treated her how he wanted to be treated.

Nick sighed and changed the topic, reluctant to let her out him on the spot of a topic he wasn't inclined on talking about. "One hour down." He marked a tally down on his leg and Judy laughed at his childish behaviour. Desperate to get out the car they inhabited, but it just prolonged the experience. Especially when you were watching the clock in between his dials, itching for it to reach the number that would signify an eighth of their already eventful night in the car.

Still with 7 hours to spend in each other's company.


	2. Hour 2

_**Don't worry I'm probably going to upload a lot more regularly to this story now because I'm thoroughly enjoying writing this story and additionally, sorry for the lack of uploads, my life's very busy with a certain someone…**_

 _ **About this chapter itself, I included a Judy flashback when she was roughly around the same age as Nick was in his last chapter. But that target of 100k words is going to happen, mark my words.**_

 _ **Anyway, as always, hope you enjoy.**_

 _Hour 2_ :

"Soooo, carrots, how many siblings have you actually got? I mean I saw a load of your siblings when I visited your parents, that had to be all of them, right?" Nick was trying to change the topic to one with more of a less tense mood and one that was less personal to him because it all got too real when he spoke about his past as it did on the tram when he leaked another bit of his past to the doe who is currently his world.

"Well, you met about 200 out the 300 I have, mainly because the others moved to the city and abroad. Like, some people in my family are scientists whilst others are hillbillies. For instance; my sister had 7 piercings in one ear by the age of 13."

"I can just imagine your sister now with a balaclava with a leather jacket riding a chopper." Nick laughed at the thought of a bunny riding a motorcycle as he started to imagine how their ears would flap in the window.

"That's how she ended up." Nick felt a little humiliated that he had just insulted her sibling but Judy didn't seem bothered that he had mocked her family, in fact, she seemed rather light about it all. It was clear to Nick that Judy's family was very varied. Judy knew some of her family were basically the ones who were disappointments. She was just glad she wasn't one of them.

"You know I never had any siblings and as much as you loathe your brothers and sisters sometimes, it's better than having no siblings. Trust me, I was so bored. Come to think of it that's probably why I ended up as a crook. Anyway, the burrows didn't seem full of hillbillies when I visited. I mean I met this fox named Gideon who was alright." Judy mentally ceased to function and running her paw over her cheek, still feeling the scar that was only millimetres thick drew her straight back to the moment where she had been scratched by Gideon. It wasn't the pain that seemed to cause the most damage it was the actual concept of being scratched by claws that really drilled the memory in. The best she could do to get over her fear of them was to associate Gideon's claws with pain and Nick's with pleasure. Nick placed his paw on her shoulder and she was snapped away from that memory and instead set her sights on Nick's face. "You alright, Fluff?"

"Erm yeah, don't worry it's nothing." She tried to brush the memories of angst aside and instead focus on what they were speaking about before.

"It's not nothing, I know my bunny too well for her to lie like she is, so why doesn't she just tell me? It can't be that bad, right?" Judy was debating whether to confess her childhood incident to Nick as he'd probably act irrationally in one of two ways. He'd either flip out and ask why she didn't tell him sooner or would feel empathy for her and Nick wasn't as strong as he made out to be when empathising.

"Carrots, it is _n't_ nothing. You know you can speak to me about anything."

"Yeah, but you're just not-"

"Not what? Not your mate? C'mon Judy you know you hurt me when you do this; close yourself up and act like this doesn't matter." Nick was now attempting to guilt trip her into blurting out the secret that made her seem weak. That was the only thing stopping her from saying it. She appeared weak if she did and she wasn't willing to let Nick lower her self-esteem because he would mock it with one of his intendedly facetious sarky comments. Nevertheless his plan to guilt trip her was working as she stared at the floor with a face that expressed the lower in her reluctance to tell him.

She couldn't reply. She had no excuse that wouldn't give it away. "I was bullied as a kit."

"What?" Nick was surprised that she had been bullied in her youth whilst she appeared very hardy now, it must have been a contrast when she was younger. "Why? By who? When was this?" He wasn't trying to know it out of curiosity yet that was the detective part of him shining, it was the concern for Judy, the concern that she was hurt by this 'bully'.

"It wasn't that bad but..." Judy sighed before expressing her thoughts. "There was this one time when I was nine. After a school play, I saw Gideon Grey, the bully, picking on my little sister and her friends." She took another sigh. "I decided to intervene because I'm an idiot and then when Gideon pushed me over, I kicked him, like an idiot. Then he scratched me round the face- Told Ya! Nothing to worry about, now can we please drop the topic."

Nick was listening to the dial tone as he rang a number that Judy only knew as the one her parents would call whenever they needed pies. "Nick, what are you doing?"

"Asking _him_ what that was all about." Judy leaned across the gear stick to snatch the phone out of Nick's paw and listened painfully as Nick asked for Gideon on the phone whilst pushing Judy away with his other paw. "Hello? Is Gideon there? He is? Can you put him on please?" Nick smirked at Judy as he defied her wishes with such contemptuousness.

Judy bent Nick's arm the wrong way and he dropped the phone onto his lap and when they both set their paws on it, it was like a tug of war match but whoever lost also lost their dignity. Gideon answered the phone and in amongst the grunts they were exclaiming in their strength, Judy heard the muffled voice and shouted. "Don't listen to him, Gideon! He's losing his marbles!" Judy just about managed to gain enough grip on it that she snatched it out of his grasp. Not thinking straight she wound down the window to Nick's car and he helplessly watched the phone bomb it across the sidewalk from her paw and into the snow. She smiled at him with a smug grin that only reinforced the anger he was set on displaying.

"What the actual fuck have you done?! That has literally everything on it! My accounts, banking, contacts, pictures, work, emails!" He opened the door, jumped down and slammed the door behind him, startling Judy into jumping out of her skin. She'd realised she had done something more than wrong when Nick was mad at her out of all mammals. He was almost never mad at anyone and when someone performed a little stunt like Judy had, that ground Nick's gears too far. He leant on the passenger window where Judy was sat and interrogated her. "Why did you do that?!"

"I don't know, I-I just thought-"

"I'm going to have to buy a new phone, get all my contacts back and get all the confidential information from work back because you destroyed mine in snow, this is coming out of your wages." Judy didn't want to risk raising Nick's ire and agreed to pay for a phone with a solemn nod.

"Maybe it still works."

"I highly doubt it." He sighed and knelt down to pick up his phone.

Judy was hesitant to raise her voice or ask if he felt okay. "Nick, are you alright?" He had been knelt down for a pretty long time and wasn't responding to Judy's question which was making her start to worry what was actually taking him so long to pick up a phone. "Nick?" Her voice was lowered as she opened the car door and when she turned to shut it she felt something hit the back of her head, it was in the form of a ball and it was cold. With snow on the ground, it didn't take a genius to figure out that Nick was throwing snowballs. She gasped and turned around to see Nick tossing a snowball up and down in his paw whilst grinning at her. She presumed his phone was alright by his childish behaviour and reminded him they were still technically on shift. "Stop acting like such a kit, we're on a stakeout remember, we can't create any noise or draw unnecessary attention to ourselves."

"Yeah, but it doesn't mean we can't have any fun in the process." She still seemed apprehensive to the idea of having 'fun' whilst doing work, two words that usually didn't marry but with Nick on the force, it was quite hard for them to separate. "C'mon carrots, you know you wanna."

Judy bent over and Nick whistled in an attempt to further provoke her into joining the fight. She rolled her eyes and caught him off guard by launching one right at his chest. She smiled with vengeance for his past actions in the one snowball. She liked the feeling she got out of throwing a snowball at her insufferably annoying tod that constantly teased her. She picked up another and got hit by Nick's snowball before launching a volley of snowballs at him. He swung the passenger door open and blocked the incoming snowball before he peeked round the side to have a ball of snow crumble on his face. He grinned mischievously and compacted the most snow he could into the size of his palms and threw it harder than meant at Judy who flew backwards onto the snow from the impact.

Nick gaped his eyes at what he'd just done and rushed over to her. It couldn't be serious, she had to be joking. "Okay carrots, you can stop fooling now." He stood over her whilst leaning down. But, before he could get a chance to tickle her conscience, she grabbed the biggest pawful of snow she could get. She grasped his collar to pull them closer together and she shoved the snow down his back.

He froze as he felt the snow turn to mush within seconds, freezing his warm back that contrasted the ice cold slush. He picked his shirt up at the back and shook it in an attempt to dispose of the freezing water that crawled through his red forest of fur. "Judy, what in the-" He shrivelled as he felt the snow hit his lower back whilst chunks fell out the back of his top. "hell do you think you're doing?! You're gonna blow our cover!"

"Shut up and get back in the car you big wimp." Nick screwed his face in discontentment and scorn at her insult after the stunt she'd just pulled. Nick was making a mental tally of how many times she pranked him. It was currently 2 to 0 so he decided to step it up a notch. He narrowed his eyes filled with desire for revenge.

Nick grabbed placed his already freezingly numb paw on the snow to prop himself up before deciding to fill Judy in on a way ticket to making her feel envious of what he was going to do.

After shaking as much as he could off, he buttoned up his shirt and sat in the car. "You know you're a right little shit sometimes." He didn't say it with an aggressive tone, he said it with a smile pulled and a small chuckle after it. He knew the incident was a joke and even though she was still delving into sporadic bursts of sniggering, she did feel a little bad.

"I could say the same for you." Judy was hardly ever sassy yet when it came to her mate who constantly mocked everything she said or did, it wasn't a hard decision to return the favour, especially when he started to drive her ire.

He pushed the button of a chair filled with arrows on the dashboard and snuggled back into his chair as Judy stared at his pleasured reaction, not sure what to make of it. "Are you alright there slick?"

He turned his head to face her and gave her a satisfied grin. "You don't even know what alright is until you feel this fluff." She placed her paw against the back of the chair and gasped at the intense heat he'd been dwelling in for the last few minutes. She noticed that the button he'd pushed was mirrored on her side of the dashboard and pushed it in like he had his before he leant forward and turned it off. She tutted at him before he tapped the fuel gauge.

She switched the roles and turned his off whilst maintaining the heat that dispersed out her seat. He smiled at her before switching the heat back to his and he turned hers off once more causing her to sigh and force her plan into action.

"Shirt off. Now." Nick was shocked by her sudden impulse to be sexual with him and he wasn't one to turn down an opportunity for it no matter where they were or what they were doing. He leant forward to kiss her but she pushed him away lightly as a joke and he was now even more confused than he was originally by what she wanted out of him. "Not everything I say is related to sex you filthy tod. Just take your shirt off."

"You know I have nothing on underneath this?"

"All the better."

He rolled his eyes and proceeded to unbutton the top couple of buttons and once he'd pulled it over his head he chucked it towards Judy and almost immediately after he sat with his arms crossed in an attempt to preserve the heat he had from the seat. He yawned whilst stretching his arms up touching the roof in the process.

"Look, I don't have a clue what you're trying to prove here so lay it on me." She threw the thin material around her whilst watching him cling to the seat for the little heat source he had. She wanted to take a picture of him hugging his own tail for warmth, that was her real goal in all the fuss she was creating. She just needed an excuse to make him cold and this was her chance to greatly embarrass him through social media to get back at the picture he took of her whilst she was sleeping in his arms captioned something Judy went mental at him for and included the words 'Look at my cute little bunny.' Two things Judy was anxious about in that. The 'my' and the 'cute' part she was just livid at him for, as he knew she loathed the use of the word to describe her, but through that argument, Nick managed to gain a pass to use it.

"I wanted your shirt to compensate for the heat I was missing out on."

"My shirt won't do anything! Are you kidding me? It's a couple of millimetres thick and was only 5 dollars." After wrapping herself in it, she could smell Nick all over her so that was at least a bonus from the entire thing. "Why do you really want my shirt?"

At least she had a reason, that happened to be a coincidence that didn't reveal why she really seized his shirt for herself. "I love your scent."

"Oh shut up fluff, if you really want my scent, just ask. You know what I can do..."

"What, mark me? Nick, people will know and I thought this was going to be a 'private' relationship."

"Well, we could always have ..." He mumbled the last word knowing that she'd almost definitely say no and probably moan at him for the next few hours.

"You know we can't do it right now don't you? We've got a job to do. We're basically 10-10 _, not_ 10-7 so before you even try to pull any more hints on me, it's not gonna happen. That's final. Besides, I'm happy with your shirt." Nick huffed at her before she spoke up trying to break the tension so she wouldn't receive an as big as it could be punishment for taking the picture that would be the most embarrassing for Nick if it got into the wrong paws, that meaning Clawhauser. "All that ZPD training has paid off, huh?"

"I didn't tell what the coach said to me did I?" Judy shook her head after he started speaking again. "She said 'Oh you're such a wimp...'" Judy loved how Nick impersonated people with the impressions of them and she couldn't help but snigger whilst Nick was making a point. "...and all of this yet, I could lift something nearly double my body weight. Explain that, and just because I have smaller legs than everybody else, she called me slow. I actually said to her that if she just let me run on all fours I might be able to go around about 30 miles per hour but apparently; no, I can't do that because of cheetahs. She also was having a moan at me struggling with my shooting yet the targets were about thrice the height of me and that isn't even the worst part. She would not stop saying that I'm jacking off in the dorms at lunch over you so of course that made people believe h-"

"Were you?" Judy asked that question hesitantly knowing that they were out by then and that they spent nearly every night on the phone to each other unless Nick was dragged out of bed by the instructor to do a series of push ups or lift some weights and he wasn't adept to the task of being a police officer. The truth was: All Nick needed to do to actually become a police officer was conquer one or two obstacles along with improving his endurance. Yet somehow the polar bear thought it was a great idea to consistently drag Nick out of bed because he wasn't as strong as some of the tigers or elephants, she only did this because Bogo didn't want Nick in his precinct but as a valedictorian, he was obliged to be located to the precinct with his favourite mammal and the one he loathed. In the months he was there he spent his free time yearning for Judy to be in his arms as they slept. But that seemed a world away from the allegations the polar bear was making.

"Once or twice in the entire six months but that isn't important because I didn't get caught." Nick wasn't too opposed to telling Judy about the times he'd jacked off over her to her as they were mates after all, but Judy just couldn't get the image out of her head and didn't know whether to feel privileged that he found her so attractive or disgusted by the fact he was supposed to be studying and instead he sat jerking off to her, so she couldn't really have an opinion on that, therefore, keeping her mouth shut about it. "So then I basically got known as the fox who jacked off to his bunny girlfriend in the dorms and that title basically stuck for the entire time I was there. Then when I get out, I realise that my bunny is waiting for me with a gym membership and a daily jog as well as my first day on the force consisting of the reminder that I'd jerked off to the bunny I was sat next to." Whilst Nick had been in the academy, Judy had started to try new experiences that she never had the opportunity to join or experience in the burrows such as gyms and the naturist club that her and Nick tried but ended up flunking on due to the constant need they wanted to fulfil in there and they were sick of having to run back to the car to fulfil that need.

"I mean you didn't exactly keep it up, but you still look hot and you can go for hours."

Nick twisted his head in confusion for what she just said. "What do you mean by 'Go for hours'? And besides, that, am I not good enough for you?" Nick drew her gaze towards his torso with his paw.

"No, I mean- you're perfect honey okay, nothing can change that. You're my favourite mammal in the entire world no matter what you look like, so don't feel obliged to keep it up for me. I mean if you're loving the love as much as I am then I guarantee that you will want to keep it up. Like yeah sure sometimes we go for hours and get up all dazed but I love you for it, and I'll love you no matter what you do and nothing will change that. You know that, right?"

Nick realised she was talking about sex from the comment before and took pride in the fact he could please his bunny visually and sexually. "Oh course I do, you dumb bunny." A grin stretched across and up the side of his face before inviting her in for a kiss. He leant across the gear-stick and he gave her a light kiss. Nothing to do with the sort they would have when having sex but again as they did less than an hour ago they needed to show some sort of love which wasn't presented in the form of sex but instead in the form of a kiss and familiarising each other with one other's mouths. After she had pulled back for a breath he felt the need to remind her the very obvious fact that he'd just displayed to her. "I love you like you wouldn't even believe, I don't care what anyone says about us. I love you. I love you." Nick loved to say the three words that rolled off the tongue and into the form of verbal affection.

"I love you too you foxy fox."

"That's new." He chuckled at her new name for him, not like he was opposed to being called sexy but it was still new coming from a 'naive' bunny.

"Well, isn't you being affectionate new?" She couldn't help but arouse some witty banter from Nick's intendedly sexual orientated comment but Judy took it as an insult so retaliated causing a tragic mood drop for Nick.

His face dropped at her remark and his trembling face managed to overcome the emotional angst and utter out a word. "What?" Nick was confused by the thought that he wasn't affectionate enough, he just told her he loved her. He constantly told her that he loved her, he showed it through kisses, hugs and sex. He constantly bought her gifts. He listened to her all the time. Respected her wishes. What more did she want? Then it occurred to him that it was sarcasm from abunny who didn't know how to use it.

"I'm just joking Nick, you know I love you more than anything in the entire world and I wouldn't trade that for anything in the universe because I love you so so so so so much!" She blushed as she said it with the fact she was showing intense verbal affection to the tod she loved more than anything she could imagine.

"Woah, carrots, I love you too, m'kay?"

"Yeah, I know that." She gave him the quirky innocent smile whilst he returned the favour with his classic smirk. A fox and bunny staring at each other in a car from the 80s. An extraordinarily unusual sight in Zootopia but everything had its tale. From the car itself to the torn leather seat, it all held history.

They both were so delightful in one another's company, they failed to notice some random guy across the street. Nick felt as though he needed to continue the conversation and despite Judy's little grin pleading for attention, he did so. "I wish we didn't fall asleep that one time though because of Jesus fucking Christ, that _killed_ the next day. Like, imagine if your parents walked in on us. I was supposed to be halfway down the corridor asleep rather than doing what we were."

"We did have a quick one in the morning though, and that was _so_ good." To Judy, every single time she and Nick were on the floor or on the couch, or even in the car with intimate desires that were being fulfilled, was a time to relish and recall as ' _so_ good' or 'absolutely amazing'. Nick on the other hand just chose to remember the moment by reenacting it, which wasn't always too practical.

"Yeah, that was good, but it was only to actually get you off me." Nick had once again made it awkward. He'd ran dry of topics to talk about and Judy sighed at the constant periods of tranquillity backed by awkwardness at the absence of conversation. They'd both told each other as much as they could remember and Nick decided to stop revisiting past events and focus on the ones that sat firmly in the present which involved resolving his shirt situation. "Can't you just give me my shirt back?"

"Nope."

"Why?"

"Because this is a punishment." Nick rolled his eyes at her parent-like attitude.

"Fine." He sighed with a strong hint of surrender and stood up on the floor before sitting back down with his tail between his legs and his body curled up in it. Judy hastily grabbed her phone out her back pocket with no time to lose and swiftly swiped right before snapping a picture of him.

Unfortunately for Judy, Nick heard the shutter and almost immediately whipped his neck around to meet the gaze of Judy's phone's camera and he gasped before wailing and whining in protest to her devious and devilish plan. Then he started to demand phrases like "Delete that now!" as Judy couldn't contain her laughter whilst tapping her phone screen rapidly for the caption.

Once Judy had dodged Nick's arms with the mission to shut down the process of her uploading that blush-inducing picture online, she tapped one button more forcefully than the others whilst enjoying the feeling of revenge by returning the favour he always passed onto her. She was plastering a wide, smug, derogatory, contented, contemptuous smirk across her small pink lips whilst Nick sat in disbelief. For all, he knew that picture could go viral. He could be in Times Square by the end of the day, that thought alone was rage encouraging enough to lightly growl at her. He knew she wouldn't take offence from it. Instead she'd probably enjoy and endeavour to hear his predatory growling and sure enough, she was sitting there blushing in sexual fantasies whilst grasping her phone.

That only reminded Nick to check his phone to see how bad the picture really was so delving deep into his pocket he grabbed his phone and opened his account on Furbook. It was the first thing in his feed as he didn't follow many people, not really taking much interest in the site. The only reason he made an account in the first place was that Judy had forced him to so she could tag him into the countless number of photos she took of them. Nick didn't get it even after spending half an hour sitting down trying to work out how to change his name from the very formal 'Nicholas' to his better preferred 'Nick' and after Judy had helped him the same way she did his tax forms he just about managed to do it.

He glanced at the caption then at Judy in disbelief for what she had written. "Cute A F, heart eyes emoji, heart eyes emoji, flame emoji and flame emoji. Carrots; care to explain?" She blushed as he said his infamous "That's my praise". Sensing the fact that Judy was blushing by the fact she was quiet and seemingly embarrassed he continued to deepen her blush hopefully to the point where she would snap or gain her interest by inclining some statement she'd want to fight for no matter what mood she was in such as a topic her and Nick were talking about but got interrupted whilst doing so by the chief who seemed set on trailing their every footstep in the hopes to catch them in the act so he could file Nick for fraternisation and get them split up so there wouldn't be a chance but he had no solid evidence and with them both only whispering innuendos to each other, concealing activities of that nature for the evening after work, it was going to take him quite some time to get it. Nick decided to taunt her further with her own mistake and Judy didn't like her misdeeds recited, especially by some sarky reynard. "You should just be lucky I didn't throw your phone out the window when I had the chance…" Judy's ears stood up from their droopy crimson previous state. "...Like you did mine." Nick mumbled that part loud enough for Judy to hear, knowing she'd just interpret it as the way that he forgot about her sensitive ears and not catch onto the fact he said it with the means to aggravate her.

To Nick's surprise, he got nothing, absolutely nothing. Sure, he'd got the ears standing up but not even her nose twitching in the refraction of the glass that mirrored her blank mindless facial expression. Her eyes that glimmered in the streetlight and sparkled in the moonlight as she gazed endlessly at her and Nick's paw prints on the sidewalk, trying to forget about everything she had done wrong and instead draw her attention to the vitality of her already complete life. She didn't have money but she definitely had love and cases to be solved and that cut it for her.

After a couple of minutes in the deafening silence that seemed to threaten Nick's mentality, he tapped her on the shoulder, jumping her out of the trance she was compelled to be intertwined with. She drifted her vision around the car and ended up with her nose pushed against Nick's snout. He casually asked her whilst in their love-dazed position "What does A F mean?" She loved him exactly for what he was doing right then. He was compassionate at all the right times and all the wrong ones, but yet he was so caring, considerate and compassionate. The three Cs that showed one's affection for another and Nick used all three on overdrive.

"You're so old." At least she spoke and it wasn't some depressing speech or some apology but Nick didn't condemn the insult she just shot him with after she was the one staring into eternity.

Nick knew he was though, despite him not being too happy when people highlighted it, he did know it. That was one of the factors that made him question whether being in a relationship with Judy was worth it with the 8 year age gap standing strong and repugnant to budge. Instead of sacrificing a relationship with a bunny he'd probably never meet anyone like again, he cut down on the alcohol and ceased the smoking in order to take up the exercise she dragged him out to do and eat healthily. He was now living a healthy life in an attempt extend his life and live like there was a tomorrow. He didn't want to leave Judy for 20 years by herself, all because he was too selfish to stop smoking and drinking but with a fox's life being longer than a bunny's in the first place it would just about lap over and even though Judy didn't want to speak or even think about Nick dying, it was a real issue that she couldn't escape from. The same way how when Nick joined the force, there was always the chance of them getting called out to an ambush and getting shot. She felt as though he was like a dead eye though by the demonstration of his abilities back at the training range, whilst on the contrary, he felt as though she was a bodybuilder with the strength she had for her little size. They made the perfect team. Judy having the ears, Nick possessing the eyesight and the nose. Then Judy had accumulated strength at the Academy whilst Nick had improved his already impeccable shot. It was the main reason why they worked so well together and actually worked together in the first place, aside from the fact they were the only two officers smaller than a car, if nature hadn't given Nick his excelled vision that was even more useful at night he would probably be partnered up with some wolf or rhino that would constantly take the piss out of him.

According to Judy, Nick looked younger than what he was and he was just thankful that was so. If the morons at the academy found out about _the_ age gap, it would probably cause quite a few problems on both Judy's and Nick's ends. Despite all that, he wasn't afraid to use his age to his advantage in this situation. "Yeah, I know I am. You even took me on a shopping spree, making me spend about 400 dollars on clothes I've only worn once. That much money was wasted because I apparently looked like your dad on vacation."

"Yes, but we're not on vacation. Do you remember the ZPD training shirt?" He didn't even have time to give some sort of signal that he was answering before she hared off to the answer herself. "It looked lovely like the style was great and really highlighted your figure but no, apparently Judy is wrong and it looked bland and boring and doesn't look as good as your shirt."

"No, I never said my shirts _look_ better, I said they _feel_ better. You know slapping on some tank top isn't going to make me comfortable. I might as well just take my shirt off rather than wearing a tank top and my shirts are like 5 bucks a piece, whilst the clothes you made me buy were around 50 dollars. And out of a 3 hour long trip to the mall, I literally gained 4 new tops, a pair of shorts and a couple pairs of pants. That's not even including the phone you made me buy which just cost me about a thousand dollars more. I was saving to get a new car but instead, we go to the mall and burn through over 2000 dollars right away." Nick was now starting to show his vexation towards Judy for forcing him to buy, what seemed like, all the store.

"Well, clothes are more beneficial than buying a new car. This one's fine and now you have a whole new wardrobe which looks great!" Judy was trying to lighten him up with increased enthusiasm but Nick seemed fixed on showing his ire towards her.

"I don't think me getting tank tops looks great."

"You didn't say anything about the t-shirts."

"Yeah but that's because they're alright, yet I have to pay extortionate prices for them." Nick actually loved the t-shirts, he wore them whenever he wasn't due to meet Judy, but that soon backfired when Judy asked why he'd changed from his shirt in the morning to his t-shirt when her and her sister came across Nick and Finnick Downtown and that caused quite a few eyebrows to rise but Nick just about managed to pull it off and lie to her with some witty excuse. Which was lucky for him, unfortunately, he lost a shirt in the process and now he was only down to 3 shirts, the green one from the case, the yellow one from when they first met and a red one that Judy didn't mind. The only reason why they were the only ones standing was that she threw the other ones out and couldn't bring herself to throw either of the ones they had history with, in the trash. "We should have gone in whilst 10-10 and arrested them for daylight robbery because you managed to convince me to get 1000 dollar phone, yeah it's great but is it really worth it?" Judy felt obliged to say no as Nick constantly lost his temper at his phone due to the fact he'd switched operating systems and constantly asked for her help with it and it usually ended up in an argument before that managed to, somehow, morph into sex.

"Look, Nick, you made your point. I egged you on to buy all this stuff you didn't need but I just thought they looked really nice on you and I thought that phone would be great for you since as you're on it all the time and it was… sorta." Nick wasn't really sure what the word 'egged' actually meant so just assumed it meant provoked in the context she was using and shook his head mentally before denouncing her country talk. Then that thought occurred to him; that all of what she was telling him to buy was the type of stuff they'd wear out in the countryside.

Nick was starting to make sense of it even though he could have been picking in the wrong direction. "Did you force me to buy them clothes because that's what you wear out in the countryside?"

Judy sighed, sick of having to explain the same point to Nick's narrow-minded mind but yet whatever she told him about the fact they lived similar lives, it seemed to go in one ear and come out the other. "We've already been over this. We wear the same things as you." Nick knew she would pick him up for the comment he made and he knew very well that the kids in the burrow wore similar clothes to those in the city whilst others wore the most rural thing going making it a real contrast, but yet he still loved to hear her drone out the same explanation each time. Yet, this time he had an argument for it.

"What about your mom and dad, they wear _very_ different clothes to the ones we wear here. Like, overalls? Really?" Nick had no choice but to change into some of the tank tops she bought him when he visited the burrows, well for some of the help he was doing to gain the trust of Stu and Bonnie, both two narrow-minded farmers who had it out against foxes. In the meanwhile Judy and some of her sisters were catching up whilst Nick was sweating in the fields, leaving her sisters to compliment Nick. Then just as Judy thought she was going to get away with concealing the fact they were mates, he pulled something so lascivious on Judy in front of the entire group she was in and that let at least the four bunnies in the group know that they _were_ mates and the way he was holding her was what Stu would call 'obscene'.

"No, they just wear the type of clothes that they grew up in." Nick rolled his eyes at her before asking why Gideon wore overalls in a demanding and frank manner, growling the 'Gideon' out of his mouth in the hopes that she would tell him the truth or answer his original question.

She couldn't think of anything and Nick was 'egging' her on for an answer so she just came up with some fake excuse in the hope he would take it and leave. "Because he finds them comfortable." She was already kicking herself for saying it and combined with the answer Nick gave her to why he wore his shirt a little while ago she was back to square one.

"Then why can't I wear my clothes?!" Nick was now just sat in disbelief how she could know that he likes the comfort of his own clothes and when it came to Gideon it was fine, but when it came to Nick she wasn't fine and she had even said she doesn't mind his shirts, yet she was adamant to change Nick's fashion sense to her standards by branding him with big name companies which cost a lot of money, at least now Nick knew why she didn't have a better apartment. Sure she was in the heart of the city and it did cost a lot for any place, no matter how small in the Downtown area, but Nick's 2nd rank detective pay was strung when he had to contribute towards the added apartment cost and living costs in general and without stealing anything that living cost between both him and Judy was a lot. So in the end, after all, expenses were taken out of the mix, they were pretty wealthy, due to the fact they only had one shabby old car whilst living in a shabby apartment and mostly working overtime. But what do you spend 2000 dollars on? Judy would just answer "Let's go mad and spend it!" Whilst Nick just wanted to put the money away in savings so he could save for a surprise honeymoon.

But back in the present and a honeymoon was the last thing on his mind whilst fighting for his fashion rights. He'd pushed Judy too far though and she exclaimed the truth that even shocked him a little. "Because you're clothes aren't hot!" It was silent. Nick's stern face reclined to one of an expressionless nature whilst she continued in a more hushed voice. "I think you look really hot and sometimes I just wanna show other mammals that and show them that you're really fit."

"So you want to make other mammals jealous of what you have, which is me?" She nodded her head and Nick was just speechless at how she wanted to make others envious of him. He didn't know whether she was trying to take advantage of him or trying to display how great he looked. He was debating it whilst Judy sat blushing in the silence that daunted over them.

Nick couldn't come to a conclusive answer so just assumed it was a bit both which he didn't care too much for anyway as he was happy that she found him attractive. He wanted to break the silence though so resurrected the conversation that was lost in one about fashion. "So, what does AF mean?"

"It just means as eff." Nick was now at an all time loss. She had literally just repeated what she had said prior and that it was quite obvious that she was censoring a word, it was just anyone's guess as to what word it actually was.

"What do you mean by 'eff'?"

"Just F-U-C-K." She was still too stubborn to say the word even though Nick had given her the all clear earlier a countless number of times.

"What? Fuck?" Judy cringed when she heard the word, she didn't know what it was about the word, it just vexed her whenever someone utter that or anything of a coarse nature. "Oh my lord." He muttered and proceeded to actually get some background on why she didn't curse. "Judy we've already been over this. But seriously why don't you swear, tell me."

"1: It's profane, 2: I'm a cop so I shouldn't have to swear and 3: Something my dad did when I was younger." He could've guessed it was something relating to her parents, she was a daddy's girl and as much as she fought to get away from that title, the more of one she'd become.

"Whatever this thing that your dad did, just forget about it, he's not here right now and besides, I curse all the time and I don't see anything bad about me." Nick fail of a reassurance sort of helped her and she felt as though she could be 'profane', as she called it, in public. After all, everyone in the city did curse but it was just the factor of whether they had bad history involving a slap. Judy couldn't get over things easily, therefore causing things that went wrong in her childhood drag into her 20s such as, the scratch from Gideon. That didn't just leave a tiny scar on her body but it also left an even bigger one in the mind. When she met Nick, she thought he was hot, right from when she glanced across the road. She wanted to follow him in the ice cream parlour, not only because he looked shifty but also the fact that she wanted to know him, she wanted to know his whereabouts and whether the bias her father set on foxes was morally correct. Of course, now, she knew it wasn't but after a day in the urban jungle, you could separate things of a moral nature from things of an immoral nature easily; especially when you had an ex-street hustler on your side.

She still didn't feel comfortable doing it and refused to do so, mainly because she felt it was hostile. She just remembered something her dad said ad felt as though that was a good enough excuse rather than speaking her mind. "My dad slapped me and in short told me that idiots swear and that if I do, I'll have no friends, so yeah."

"That's bullshit."

"Nick, how many friends do you have?"

"Why don't we talk about something?"

"No, didn't you keep your friends from high school."

"Expelled; twice."

"I kept my friends and fiends from high school. Like do you remember Gideon? He was a bully in high school and yes sometimes I was on the receiving end, but I had a major incident that completely destroyed my life essentially." Nick sat up more curious at what she was going to say.

"Well, it was on a Friday, I think. But in the burrows with over 300 siblings, some become your best friends whilst others, your worst enemies. Anyway, I was at the store with my friends because it was the last day of the week and that's what you do, so after that, we headed home…"

Judy in her youth would have either been known as the idiot, the teacher's pet or the rebel. All three she welcomed with open arms and sometimes sneaking a couple of magazines into the house wasn't all too hard. Unfortunately for her when she pushed the door open to her bedroom, she got the shock of her life.

They'd found them.

Judy managed to rack up over a dozen magazines porn magazine with the contents of her fetish; foxes. She instantly regretted buying them, but in the day and age of early internet access, it was impossible to go online and clear up your history after yourself so a hard copy of whatever you wanted would be the way forward.

In the burrows, it was often that rooms would get raided for a joke and to see if whoever dwelled in that room had some dirty little secrets and boy, did they hit the jackpot in Judy's. She was only 14 and was dreaming of foxes instead of bunnies. She just wasn't attracted to her own species, it was just a fact and whilst she fantasised over some very kinky things involving a fox that she was now doing after 10 years of waiting, others thought of kinky things to do with bunnies.

But, who found what?

Her sisters found her, as she preferred to call it, 'collection'.

After she had been interrogated about them, some outraged at her deranged behaviour, whilst other took the sassy approach which seemed to the same, if not more pain and after getting teased for about an hour as her sisters flicked through them flashing the images in Judy's face, they left an Judy sunk down to her knees and wept. Harder than she had ever wept before. She was in a state. She just got mocked by her friends with an unforgivable amount of derogatory quotes that stretched far past a friendly joke.

The reason why teenage Judy was in a fit of uncontrollable bawling was down to the fact that she was screwed by whatever happened. Just to start the streams of tears, her friends were clearly her friends no more with only a couple staying behind to actually comfort her. Now her parent was going to know, as snitching wasn't uncommon and happened regularly but with so many bunnies it was hard to speak to another in the burrow in private. That's how gossip spread.

Later after she had reclaimed her senses and tidied her room her dad bashed down the door to her room. "Jude! What have you been doing? Your sisters tell me you've been looking at naked foxes. Is that true?" Her father didn't believe in the slightest that his best-behaved child in that litter would go against his word to keep away from shifty foxes and look at fox erotica. He _knew_ it was nonsense and that it was just a rumour that the 'gossip girls' started but he needed to seem like he was being fair or war would wage between him and his daughters.

Judy was not sure of what to say. Lie and make her dad happy or tell the truth and make him do god only knows what. "Yes." Stu clenched his fist whilst staring blankly in front of him before excusing himself and she saw her mum dart past to help Stu calm down and regain his bliss. To Judy, it felt good. To her, that was standing up to her parents and not just telling them what they want to hear. Her dad refused to speak to her later that evening and didn't say a single word to his daughter for two whole years whilst her mum just tried to forget about the whole situation and see her daughter as her daughter and not see her for the fox loving bunny she was. That made Bonnie extra nervous when she watched Judy walk past a fox in the street.

But whilst everyone in Judy's litter had endured the painful 'talk' their parents would force them to discuss, but Judy's 'talk' had been avoided for two years by her parents and Judy knew exactly what she was going to say to her parent before they even tried to speak. This compelled her dad to make contact with the disgrace of the family as Judy thought her father saw her.

"Jude, do you mind if we just talk about a couple of things with you as you've been very secretive about it?" She already knew what this was about and was just about to walk away before Bonnie got up and dragged her by her back to the chair. She continued to speak in a hushed tone even after the burst of intense aggression she'd just displayed her. "So; Judy, can you tell us more about this thing you have."

"What? My fox fetish?" Stu cringed in disgust for them 3 words to be said together by one of his own.

Bonnie just kept a straight face after accepting the fact that her daughter was sexually attracted to foxes a little more than Stu who refused to even look at her. "Yes, whatever it is can you tell us _why_ you feel that way about them, you are still young."

"First off I'm 16, I can make my own choices and I just love everything about them that a rabbit doesn't have."

That sparked both Stu's and Bonnie's interest. "Yeah, but what is it that bunnies don't have that foxes do?"

Judy was put on the spot but had an answer for almost any question you could throw at them and this was one on that list. "They have massive fluffy tails, great teeth, claws. They're also, you know, larger and they also have a knot." Before Stu could get a chance to scream why she found claws and their teeth attractive, Bonnie spoke up, interrupting Stu vexation with her curiosity. All in the meanwhile Judy was wishing she could take the last word she said back.

"What's a knot?" All the feelings of regret weren't for nothing as now she had to explain what a knot is to her own parents.

"Well, it's like a thing a fox has and I don't really know how to describe it." Judy stalled as always and after 5 minuted her father got bored and left. "Why is dad even here if he's not going to listen?"

"I don't know, you know him, but let's-"

"What's he doing?!" Judy shot up and rushed out the room before Bonnie caught the sight behold outside the window and as Judy almost smashed the door open she could only hear Gideon standing in his front yard on the opposite side of the dirt trail making up the road stuttering an answer to whatever her dad was saying to him and for her dad to be talking to a fox, it must have been bad. As she got closer, she could only hear her dad asking to see Gideon's knot. "Show me your knot."

"I-I-I don't know about that sir. I ain't no homosexual."

"Dad! Stop it!"

"Judy?" Gideon was confused by what the Hopps family was now doing in his yard but was thankful that Judy had prevented the interrogation Stu was giving Gideon, forcing him to show his knot.

"For cripes sake! You can't just ask a predator that! Oh, my- just come inside, I'll tell you what one is." Gideon stood in disbelief at what had just happened before his own eyes in his very own front yard.

After returning to the table where Bonnie was sat, Stu and Judy returned to their original seats. "Look, I know you probably won't want to hear this because it's something that's embarrassing for predator and prey to speak about like when Gideon was talking to dad."

"Just get on with it Judy!" Her dad had spoken to her for the first time in years and it didn't seem to shock her too much but it was an achievement, even if it was in an aggressive manner.

"So, a knot… So, it's basically something on a fox's penis. And this, knot; it stops the fox from withdrawing." Bonnie was just holding her face in her paw whilst blatantly blushing and shaking her head whilst Stu… Stu looked like a buffalo in a blood bath.

"Get out." Stu coarsely hushed to her. Judy was unsure of whether that was directed at her or her mother. But that soon became conclusive when Stu repeated his last words in a different tone. "Get out!"

Judy wasn't having any of this and stood up for herself in front of her parents. "You asked for me to tell you so why should I be the one leaving?!"

"Because no one else in this burrow knows what a knot is and you're only gonna learn the hard way!" Stu grabbed the collar of Judy's shirt and dragged her outside. "Come back when actually learn to respect your parents." Bonnie was fuming at Stu's irrational actions and had a very heated argument during the few days Judy was gone.

As Judy was telling Nick about the story in her youth, he could only imagine arguments to be way less violent in the burrows with the absence of claws and let his mind wander as Judy was continuing the recollection of the incident.

A few days later Judy returned and her worried mother was there to greet her with open arms and an apology that Judy couldn't see as anything other than sincere it was hard not to oblige. After all, Bonnie hadn't done anything wrong to her in the first place.

Apologies aside Judy inquisitively asked where her dad was and she replied without a care or clue where he could be. As though summoned, Stu walked into the kitchen to ask Bonnie for some help until he caught sight of Judy which is where he replaced his questioning gaze for one blazing with scorn. He sneered at her only for Bonnie to get up and smack him around the face which wasn't uncommon in the country, often married couples engaged in more than one type of physical affair and Bonnie was sick of her husband mistreating Judy by releasing a sneer or shooting a frown over to his own daughter. "You are going to sit down and listen to what your daughter has to say, she's sixteen and if she likes foxes in that way then so be it. But this is probably the reason she didn't want to tell us, because she knew you'd act like this and this is how your kids lose trust in you so if you have something negative to say, there's the door." Bonnie wasn't vexed or livid towards her husband vocally but she was mentally and as much as she wanted to force him out the house, he was still her husband and mate. Bonnie calmed herself down before turning back to Judy. "Right Jude, we just want to know if you bought those magazines because it just doesn't seem like you to do somethi-"

"No, I didn't buy them, someone must have planted them there who knew about my _thing_. It couldn't be anyone other than my friends, but none of my friends would do something like that."

Bonnie nodded before ushing Stu back outside to what he was doing and just before Judy disappeared out the door to go to work she was stopped at the door by Bonnie. "Look, Judy, I know you don't want to tell your dad about this because well, it is what it is. But I won't tell your father it's true if you tell me?" Judy needed to make a decision and quick, so she went for the option that was less likely to make foxes a touchy subject.

Later that night Stu came back home drunk off his head and with Judy up for a quick burst of caffeine, it was down to her to guide him to his bed. "Dad, I do love you. it's not that I don't and I'm sorry I have to be this way, but the least you could do is accept me for it." In the end, he ended up accepting it but not agreeing with it, whilst Bonnie fully condoned her daughter's decision and supported her. Of course, Judy didn't erase the prejudice held on foxes until she brought Nick, her _'friend'_ to the farm to show that her dad didn't need to constantly follow him around to make sure he didn't steal anything. Bonnie was more happy by her daughter's mate's visit whilst Stu was more concerned about his daughter's _best friend's_ visit. When Bonnie heard about the fact that Judy was mates with a fox after being a bit tipsy, well, _incredibly_ tipsy, she was first annoyed but soon came round to the idea and was happy for them. But their _'friendship'_ was very intimate and the amount of trust she had for a fox persuaded Stu to open his mind to Nick and it sure enough did.

"So, let me get this straight; you had to explain to your parents what a knot was! Haha! Oh my god carrots, no wonder why your mom knew what a knot was!"

"Shut your pie hole, the only reason I took you in on that time when you were drunk off your head was that I had experience with drunkards."

"I wasn't that drunk… Was I?

"Oh trust me slick, you were more than drunk. But I took you in because I had done it before… and because I love you."

"Jesus Christ, I hope I wasn't too bad." Nick knew very well what he'd be like when he was drunk and being in a room alone with a bunny he wanted so badly meant anything could've happened. Judy blushed with an awkward laugh, resentful to reveal what actually happened before Nick presented his adamant attitude to change the subject as he didn't want to know what he did to Judy but he'd get it out of her that night if it killed him. He just needed to wait. "Anyway, the only reason why I really helped around the farm was that your dad was against me from the moment I arrived but after about 4 days of lifting hay bales and doing my back in, I think I just about managed to get on his good side. Isn't he the one who tried to give you a fox taser?"

"Yeah." Both of them remembered the memory of the fox repellent that cost them time apart that killed both of them. To spend so much time together and be ripped apart by Judy's naiveness made them both distraught and left both of them in tears that night. Craving one another's company and even though Nick had her number, he couldn't bring himself to text her and when he did finally text her, she had smashed her phone by throwing at her bedroom wall in anger with her own actions that led to Nick's departure. After repairing her phone she saw the message he sent to her and felt compelled to return to the city and whilst she was sorting out train tickets, she stumbled over the answer to the case and totally forgot about Nick's message when she went to find him under that bridge until the point where he displayed his disdaining attitude where she felt obliged to blab out an apology.

As that train of thought crossed both of their minds, the clock on Nick' dash switched from 21:59 to 22:00 and Nick's phone buzzed.

"Don't tell me you actually have an alarm for each hour."

"You know me too well." He leant across and they shared a kiss.

Judy drew back from her tod and proceeded to utter "You know my weaknesses too well."

Nick smiled before grabbing the bit of paper he marked the tally on and using the pen in his pocket to mark the second line by leaning on his leg as he did the hour prior. But at least they were both comfortable in each other's company and kept each other entertained with the stories of their eccentric and intriguing past. But as much as Nick and Judy wanted to be the duo of rebels they were, they were stuck in a car…

Still with 6 hours to spend in each other's company.


End file.
